MINNEAPOLIS — For better or worse, the Timberwolves would wear their emotions on their sleeves, if their jerseys had any.
This team thrives on its passion for the game and it has helped turn the team around after years in the NBA wilderness.
There was plenty of bluster and bravado in Wednesday's 125-116 loss to Phoenix, and plenty of griping at officials in a game that featured six technicals.
But when the night got to, as coach Chris Finch likes to say, the "guts" of the game, Phoenix's play made the loudest noise in its silencing of Target Center.
After not leading at all in the first three quarters, the league-best Suns methodically dismantled the Wolves and set them a little farther back in their quest to avoid the play-in tournament.
Devin Booker scored 28 points and led a 14-3 run in the closing minutes of the quarter. By the end of the night, the Wolves and their fans could only watch as Booker strutted around the floor, giving the smack talk right back to the Wolves and fans.
Deandre Ayton finished with a dominant 35 points while Karl-Anthony Towns had 15, just three in the second half. The Wolves defense broke down in the fourth, allowing Phoenix to score 42. Anthony Edwards led the Wolves with 19.
Finch implored his team to be better at the start of Wednesday's game after he felt it took the Wolves a while to match the emotion and intensity of Monday's loss game against Dallas. The Wolves answered Finch's request with a 13-4 run to open the game and drew a standing ovation from the crowd.
Towns had a splashy first quarter with 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting, as he took advantage of the Suns trying to defend him, at least initially, without using center Deandre Ayton.
Coach Monte Williams called timeout and re-organized his club, which got back on track after starting 1-for-8 from three-point range. The Wolves led by as much as 11 before Phoenix started chipping away thanks in part to Ayton's work on the offensive glass. He had eight rebounds in the first quarter, six on the offensive end. He matched Towns' scoring efficiency with 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting.
Ayton helped keep Phoenix down just 30-25 after the first despite the Suns shooting 33% in the first.
After Towns threw down a thunderous dunk over Jae Crowder in the second quarter, the two got into it near midcourt and drew double technical fouls. Finch, who had been warned about complaining earlier in the half, got a technical, while Crowder picked up a flagrant one foul for hitting Patrick Beverley after shooting a three. It all added up OK for the Wolves on the scoreboard in the end, as they took a 64-51 lead, their biggest of the night at that point, into halftime
The chippiness didn't end with halftime, as Ayton, Patrick Beverley and Jarred Vanderbilt each picked up technicals and Phoenix again chipped away at Minnesota's lead. Towns got into foul trouble after picking up his fourth while Ayton had nine points in the quarter.
Jordan McLaughlin led a bench spurt late in the quarter with a pair of steals that ignited a 7-4 burst to end the quarter with the Wolves ahead 88-83.
Phoenix would take its first lead of the night at the 8:35 mark of the fourth quarter after Towns went to the bench with his fifth foul, a flagrant-one offensive foul for hitting Landry Shamet in the face on a drive. The Wolves did OK with Towns out, and were within 104-103 by the time he checked back in at the 5:29 mark. But that was the closest the Wolves would be the rest of the night.
